Workshop on Curating Visual Culture, Kochi, Feb 2011

By Vishal Tondon

Recognizing the dire need for curatorial studies in India, the Association of Academics, Artists and Citizens for University Autonomy (ACUA), Vadodara, with Prof. Shivaji K  Panikkar and Santhosh Sadanandan at the helm, have conceptualized a traveling workshop series addressing curatorial practice. The workshop is an initiative of India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), Bangalore, and is funded by the Jamsetji Tata Trust.

The first of this series of workshops was held at Vadodara last year. The second workshop, with the thematic focus ‘Curating Visual Culture: The Questions of Region, Gender and Sexuality’, was held at the RLV college of Music and Fine Arts at Kochi this year between 7-12 February. I too was accepted as a participant in the Kochi workshop, and the seminar was a great learning experience for me.

The resource persons were from diverse but interrelated fields like art history, curating, gender studies, contemporary Indian History and activism. Professor MSS Pandian, who teaches Contemporary Indian History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, enlightened us on issues related to the shifting relationship between nation and region, while Professor Nivedita Menon – again from JNU, and who has worked extensively on gender, feminism and sexualities – gave a very fascinating account on ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ as biological and cultural constructs. Her presentation was dotted with many amusing anecdotes on how science, literature and society try to build the rigid binary construct of gender. Sunil Gupta, an artist, curator, writer and cultural activist, spoke on his experiences with the curating of an exhibition on photography and LGBT issues. Raimi Gbadamosi, an artist, writer and curator, made a presentation on his project, ‘The Republic’, which negotiates the meeting of race, power, language and social constructions. Sunil and Raimi have both, in their own separate ways, consistently through their work tried to combat the cabal of sexual, gender and racial discrimination. Rakhee Balaraman, who is currently Visiting Faculty at JNU, and who is presently working on a book titled ‘Twentieth-Century Indian Art’, explored through her curatorial concept how economic and physical limitations of space and women’s creativity function within an age of globalism and particularly within a South Asian context. Also, artist and curator Bose Krishnamachari made a presentation on aspects of his major curatorial venture called ‘Double Enders.’        

The participants formed an exciting cluster, as there were young curators and art lecturers sharing space with students. We were each asked to conceptualize a curatorial project and make a presentation on this. Surya Singh’s very interesting concept signified the importance of kitsch, found objects and communication technology in contemporary art practice. Akansha Rastogi, a fiery, young enthusiast, came up with the idea of archiving the private interior spaces of artistic production that is the artists’ studio! Sumesh Sharma’s grave and significant concept wished to work through the way proletarian aesthetics were reflected in contemporary art from Kerala. Gopika Jadeja spoke on the very fascinating pamphlet project of the ‘Five Issues Performance-Publishing Interface’ that she and her team have been working on. This interface explores the faultlines of region, gender, place and identity in India and elsewhere. Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi, another young and enthusiastic curator, came up with a concept that explored how one could possibly adopt diverse spatial strategies of display within the gallery space. Jayashree Venkatadurai, through explorations of non-Hindu pasts of Tamil Nadu – and specifically Jain monuments – threw light on the plural sources of Tamil cultural practices. Nuria Querol presented a very informative paper on the impact of globalization on Indian curatorial practices. A very inspiring presentation by Kavitha Balakrishnan raised an inquiry into what are the difficulties in doing justice to the presentation of ‘an erotic being’ in a gallery space which is sacralised by ideologies. My own curatorial concept brought together works that expounded on the performative aspects of gender. Finally, Georgina Maddox, through a very spirited presentation, spoke on aspects of the queer gaze. 

  

On the last day, the workshop wound up with the viewing of an electrifying package of ‘Queer’ videos curated by Georgina Maddox, and with a valedictory session by Prof. Shivaji Panikkar and Santhosh Sadanandan.